Crisis Puts White House in Disarray
The defiant tone taken by President Mubarak—and widespread confusion about the meaning of his speech—had White House officials stumbling for their next step in a crisis that is spinning out of their control.After Mr. Mubarak's speech, the White House was consumed with a sense of "disbelief," one U.S. official said.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, at the same hearing on Capitol Hill as Mr. Panetta, acknowledged the difficulty of predicting fast-moving events, comparing it to foreseeing "earthquakes in California."
The White House is now squeezed between Arab and Israeli allies, who have complained that Mr. Obama was pushing Mr. Mubarak too hard to step down, and lawmakers who accuse the White House of not pushing hard enough. Now, the White House finds itself largely a bystander.
"This is really bad," a senior U.S. official said after Mr. Mubarak's address. "We need to push harder—if not, the protests will get violent."
The official advocated raising U.S. pressure to force Mr. Mubarak from power, though other officials acknowledge Washington had little clout in Cairo.
"Every day that goes by, you have to ask: who profits by this?" said Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), in an interview. "It's the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic extremists. There's the perception that we're on the side of Mubarak."
In the White House, frustration is giving way to a sense of powerlessness.
"The mystique of America's superpower status has been shattered," said Steve Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program of the New America Foundation, who has attended two meetings with the National Security Council on Egypt.
At a meeting with outside advisers Monday, four National Security Council officials were pressed on what U.S. diplomacy had accomplished. The officials said their efforts had helped avoid "catastrophic" bloodshed by helping to restrain Egyptian security forces, two participants said. |
